Modular link-up for health centre

The 93 units currently being constructed at Pipe Centre’s factory in Worcester, each fitted with plumbing, heating and wiring, will be transported to the city in September and once in place will be simply connected up.

The four-storey building, serving the city’s Bransholme estate, will be next to North Point shopping centre in Hull. It will house 11 GP practices and include audiology services, community nursing teams, a family planning clinic, cardiac services, and speech and language therapy.

The Bransholme Health Centre project is the 11th development of its kind by Citycare as part of Hull’s NHS Local Improvement Finance Trust (Lift) programme. It is due to open next summer.

Andy Moss, from contractor Binks Building Services, claimed the approach, which is also being used on the new Wilberforce Health Centre in the city centre, helped control costs. He said: “There are tight space limitations onsite at Bransholme that would make the traditional approach difficult, to say the least.

“A modular system overcomes this, as we can precisely control and manage activities that would not be possible with conventional onsite installation.”

He added: “Off-site fabrication offers a number of other important advantages. For example, it cuts installation time onsite, reduces materials wastage, cuts costs and simplifies the project management required to deliver a first class result for the client.”

The taxpayer will pick up rent payments over the next 25 years on the buildings, which have been financed by the developer Citycare, comprising the Sewell Group, UME Group, NHS Hull and Community Health Partnerships.

The £16m Wilberforce centre, due to open in November, will feature a walk-in GP service and integrate health, social and community services under one roof.